The Louis Vuitton Foundation will open to the public on Monday, October 27, 2014, after three open days - free admission by reservation - on Friday, October 24, Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26, 2014.
The Foundation will mainly be associated with artistic creation in all its forms. Within its spaces, the public will be invited to discover the permanent collection composed of works belonging to the Foundation or the Arnault collection, as well as temporary exhibitions - two per year - and musical events in the auditorium.
A white vessel of 11,700 square metres now spreads its "glass cloud" over the trees of the Bois de Boulogne with its twelve curved glass sails, made up of 3,600 panels, set on a basin and rising lightly to a height of almost 50 metres. Just a stone's throw from Porte Maillot, avenue du Mahatma-Gandhi, docked in the Jardin d'acclimatation, here is the latest work of the architect Franck Gehry.
It took eleven years of struggle to bring this project, which is rich in some thirty innovative technological patents, to fruition. It took a remarkable programme of technological innovation by nearly 120 architects, engineers and computer scientists to draw up the plans and design the monumental wooden and steel beams that support the sails, and to create a special furnace that makes it possible to bend each of the glass panels, all different to the nearest millimetre. A technological prowess, which is part of the curriculum of the Harvard University's architecture degree program.
A haute couture work
Franck Gehry is the man who hates straight lines: he twists, crumples, curves... This aversion marks all his creations. Already, with his own house in California designed in the '70s, he was imposing his mischievous, daring style. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao made him famous in 1997. And it was precisely after discovering this monumental titanium flower on the banks of the Nervion River that Bernard Arnault wanted to entrust him with the creation of the Foundation. There was never a call for tenders. The owner of the luxury group has always had a passion for architecture. This is particularly evident in theThe Dior building in Tokyo designed by the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima or the LVMH Tower in New York designed by the Frenchman Christian de Portzampac.
Franck Gehry draws the sketches, his collaborators architects make the first model, generally made of wooden blocks, which he then turns upside down as he pleases, before fine-tuning the shapes and choosing the materials. "If the creation of a garment can sometimes be compared to architecture, Franck Gehry's design is, without a doubt, haute couture". said Bernard Arnault's advisor, Jean-Paul Claverie.
Franck Gehry is at the forefront of high technology: thanks to a 3D software called Digital Projectdeveloped by Gehry Technologies from the Catia software from Dassault Systèmeshis creations can ripple happily. This structure, of which Dassault Systèmes is a partner, has around a hundred employees and architects from all over the world, such as Jean Nouvel...are appealing.
From the Hollywood public library of stacked pink cubes, to the biscornuous and delirious assembly of the Venice Beach House on stilts, from Hotel Marqués de Riscal from Alava, Spain, to the Walt Disney Concert Hall a true gallery of the evolution of the Gehry style which led him to the famous Pritzker Prize in 1989 (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for architecture). (1). Not to mention future achievements such as the Facebook's second campus in California, the Luma Foundation in Arles (a 56-metre high aluminium tower), or the future extension of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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Behind its glass scrolls, the Louis Vuitton Foundation will house eleven galleries dedicated to collections, artist interventions and temporary exhibitions, as well as a 400-seat auditorium, a restaurant, a bookstore and three terraces with views. unpublished about Paris.
A strong commitment to contemporary art.
Programming
For the opening of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the overall artistic program will take place in three successive stages, from October 2014 to July 2015, with each stage presenting a temporary exhibition, a partial presentation of the collection and a series of events.
→ The first stage - from October to December - invites to a "creative journey" essentially dedicated to the discovery of the architecture of the building, with :
- An exhibition on Frank Gehry's architecture for the Louis Vuitton Foundation. This exhibition will be in dialogue with the first major European retrospective of Frank Gehry's work organised at the same time at the Centre Pompidou.
- The presentation of some emblematic works from the permanent collection.
- A series of commissions specifically related to architecture, including a work by Olafur Eliasson.
- The Foundation's auditorium will host various performances, including two musical events:
- a recital by pianist Lang Lang on October 28, 2014,
- Kraftwerk - a pioneering group in electronic creation - from 6 to 14 November 2014 for a series of 8 retrospective concerts.
→ The next two phases, from December 2014 to July 2015, will be announced at a later date.
(1) From 8 October to 5 January 2015, the Centre Pompidou will host a retrospective of Franck Gehry's work for the first time in Europe.
Photos ©Todd Eberle for Fondation Louis Vuitton
